Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 123

Today's Daily 5:

1. a decent rest
2. a day filled with creativity
3. the pleasure of making gifts for people I love
4. baking a birthday cake for a friend
5. shopping with 4 of the girls from house church tonight to create extensive Christmas hampers for three local families in need this year.  It was fun to shop with them (though I did feel bad for the person behind us in the checkout line! We had three FULL buggies!)

You Ask, I Answer, Take 25

Today's question comes from Lois, who asked:

I was wondering if you have a kindle or what your thoughts are on them??

Well, this will probably be a shorter winded answer than some installments in this weekly series!

The answer is no, I don't have a Kindle.

As for my thoughts on the whole field of ebook readers, they're terribly conflicted.  I'm not a huge fan of reading from a screen, and I've been known to use the paper to print out an article that I will refer to only once as a source for a paper, simply because I can't stand the thought of reading a lengthy document on screen.

I'm also one of those purists who just really likes having a book in one hand, and a pen in the other, to mark in my book and highlight.

A few friends of mine have ebook readers, and love them, citing the weight, and accessibility of all sorts of titles and genres with great ease.  One friend actually had a kindle, and I was pleasantly surprised that the screen was somewhat matte, without the glare that I'd expected and dreaded.

I think the answer is this - if I end up pursuing a life overseas, or if I end up traveling more extensively (something not in the cards particularly as I head into school for the next two years), I would seriously consider and investigate the possibility of purchasing a kindle, or something comparable for the sheer ability to carry a whole library with me wherever I go.  However, since I'm not doing those sorts of things that make weight and portability a necessity at the moment, it's not something I've currently investigated greatly, or that I'll likely purchase in the near future.

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 122

Today's Daily 5:

1. errands with dad this morning
2. a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich
3. that moment when buying an extended warranty definitely pays off
4. fitting in some decent exercise on the treadmill at mom and dad's, while watching a dvd episode of Monk (so funny!)
5. hot brie (with peach chipotle jelly) on crackers
6. reasons to laugh
7. a good evening with family
8. celebrating my baby brother and Mom's birthdays
9. watching the joy as gifts that were well chosen were unwrapped
10. a ride home at the end of the night

Wrapping Up "Heal"

My one word for 2011 was "heal".

It wasn't the word I'd initially thought I would choose, but it was the one my heart landed on on December 31, 2010, as I walked and prayed on my way to and from the passport office.

I was in a good place that day, and heal didn't seem intimidating.  It seemed perfect, really.

I was expecting to hear, either within days, or within months, that I was accepted into a nursing program.  What better word for the first year of nursing studies, I thought, than heal?

I was in a good place mentally, emotionally, and spiritually - riding the high of some changes and progress I'd made, heal seemed like the natural continuation of that high, of the victory I was experiencing after many months and years of a tiring fight.

The year didn't turn out quite like I thought it would.

Heal, it turns out, is not all victory and highs.  A lot of it is hard slogging.  A lot of it is tears, and work, surrender and sacrifices.

Nursing didn't work out like I expected.  I didn't start school in January, or September, as I thought I would.  It was a full year of waiting for that part of my journey of healing to happen.  I will start school and that much desired nursing program in 2012, a year whose word has yet to be determined.  The first rejection from the program hurt.  It was a shattering of dreams and expectations.  The second one hurt less so, perhaps from experience, perhaps because of the practical reality of knowing that very few people were accepted in that second application period.

And victory?  Well, changing relationships and tears and struggling are all more apt descriptors of the year.  Uncovering, digging, surrendering.  Yoga.  Chocolate.  Loving friends. Transitions. Knowing Jesus in new ways.  Hard choices.  Hard work.

And yet, as I stop today and recall the past year, I can tell you that it has been a year of healing.

I am healthier - physically, emotionally, spiritually.  I have made choices I never thought I would make and they have changed me, they have helped me heal.  I feel emotionally and spiritually stable in ways that I haven't in more than a decade.  I have friends who I have leaned on in some pretty challenging situations, and who I know I can trust with the messy parts of myself as readily as the tidy and together bits.  I know Jesus in new ways - in ways that convince me that He loves me more than I ever could have believed.  And more than that, I am growing to understand that I, myself, am worthy.  I'm learning that caring for myself, loving who Jesus has made me, is perhaps one of the most beautiful and profound gifts of healing that this year has offered.

The year of heal didn't turn out at all like I expected, but it has been a year that has moved me, and a year that has lived up to it's name.  I can't wait to see what word reveals itself for 2012, and the journey that that word will take me on.

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 121

Today's Daily 5:

1. A trip to the farmer's market
2. a chocolate chip cookie (or three)
3. string cheese
4. a long hot bubble bath, and a good book
5. knitting, knitting, knitting on a final Christmas project